Diversity Spotlight: An Interview with Award-winning Author Torrey Maldonado - Miranda
Growing up, kids often look for role models in the media they consume, whether that is movies, books, or television. As a kid one of the role models I had was Princess Tiana. I loved her because she was a hard worker and it was her who defeated the villain in the end, not the prince. Another inspirational character was Miles Morales. He was the first time I saw someone that was Puerto Rican like me as an animated character. I had always wished to see a Puerto Rican Disney princess or at least a Latina one on the big screen that I could identify with. While Miles wasn’t Disney or a princess, he helped fill part of that longing for a Puerto Rican hero. I also love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While I enjoy all the Marvel movies, my favorite is Black Panther. The movie took place in Wakanda, an Afro-futuristic nation. Wakanda was a refreshing portrayal that I had not seen before. One of the things I love about the movie is how many powerful black female characters there are, and how they are all strong in different ways.
Kids want to see themselves in the characters they look up to. I am lucky enough to be growing up in a time where diversity in media is more prevalent. This was not the case for award-winning author Torrey Maldonado. He didn’t have as much diversity around him as a kid, so he chose to write the stories he never got to read for middle schoolers of all races. I reached out to Torrey recently to ask him a few questions on how diversity plays a role in the novels he has written.
Miranda: As an Afro-Puerto Rican, why do you believe it is important to display diversity in middle grade novels?
Torrey: Wow. You’re asking an important, timely question. Here’s why: let’s break your question into parts. “Diversity”? Trending. “Middle grade novels”? Trending. “Afro”, meaning Black lives? Trending. Puerto Ricans? Trending. We see that with how our world wants the second Miles Morales Spider-Man movie. We see that when the Afro-Puerto Rican Rosario Dawson stars as the Jedi Ahsoka Tano on The Mandalorian. We know we’re buzzing when we see Bruno Mars, Carmelo Anthony, Swizz Beats—the music producer of the Instagram Versuz battles and husband of Alicia Keys—and more shining in media and our presence in middle grade novels also is doing amazing things. Recently, my friend’s middle grade book became the Netflix hit Concrete Cowboy. Also, it stars the first Black-Latino to win an Emmy for his role in “When They See Us”. As a Black Puerto Rican American, I appreciate this moment because before this buzz I made the cast of my first book—Secret Saturdays—as diverse as the cast of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. I continued that with my second diverse book—Tight—which kids from every student of color in our human family rainbow love. It was voted a Best Book by The Washington Post, NPR, and more. One of the most fun responses is when middle schoolers see the cover of Tight and ask, “Is this Miles?” He’s not but their Spider-sense are tingling and are right when they ask that because the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper said, “"Moviegoers who sold out 'Miles Morales: Spider-Man' will relate to Tight." I hope all of this helps young people to see that we all matter and we are the everyday stars and heroes we are waiting for.
Miranda: How did the level of diversity in what you watched or read as a kid motivate you to write what you do?
Torrey: As a kid, I didn’t carefully question my heroes. When we’re in middle school and even lower and upper grades, we see Superman, The Flash, Batman, and others and they’re so impressive, that we’re impressed. We don’t ask, “Who are they? Are they from my community or neighborhood? What messages are they sending?” What I watched or read was an escape that I just escaped into. I was Bryan in Tight and Stephen in What Lane?, I was into comics, sci-fi, fantasy, . . . I even drew them. But what was I escaping into? In my escape, I fell into a trap. Jordan Peele from Key & Peele made Get Out and helped make HBO’s Lovecraft Country and also BlackkKlansman. In it, the character Kwame Ture says he worshipped Tarzan then realized he was rooting for Tarzan—a White man—to beat up Black people. Comics, sc-fi, and fantasy weren’t so diverse when I was a kid and if I would’ve asked those questions I earlier asked about Superman, The Flash, Batman, and others I would’ve realized three things. First, they’re all White men. Second, none of them came from diverse families, communities, or neighborhoods like mine. Third, I was rooting for all of them to beat up people who look like me. I wish I was more like Stephen in What Lane? Stephen is a part of today’s generation of middle schoolers who knows about a diversity of superheroes and roots for all of us to be heroic—not just White heroes. I love the first chapters of What Lane? when Dan and him take turns listing heroes like Black Panther, Luke Cage, Storm, Green Lantern, and more. Bryan in Tight also becomes aware that too many superheroes are stereotypes of manliness and live a toxic masculinity. So the level of diversity in what I watched or read as a kid showed me what’s missing and motivates me to write what kids and I feel we want to see and read.
Miranda: What made you decide to write books for middle school students?
Torrey: Being in the classroom, I get to see kids every day, and to see that our young people are everyday heroes. They are heroic in so many ways that are not spotlighted. Our kids are dealing with so much--especially today. Their resiliency is amazing to me. I want them to know they can be the change we need, and that they are the leaders we are waiting for. These are some of the reasons why I wrote my latest novel, What Lane?
Miranda: Can you tell us more about what went into writing What Lane? What are your hopes for it?
Torrey: What Lane? is a book about crossroads, coming of age, and the internal and external world of middle schoolers being a complex terrain. In middle school, we see things we’ve never seen before. We start to notice that people of different groups are being treated differently, and maybe we’re in the group that’s being pushed to the side of being the unheard, unseen, and under-represented. Middle school is a time like the Hamilton musical song where “The World (is) Turned Upside Down.” I know this because I was a middle school student and I approach almost twenty-five years of teaching middle school. Being in the classroom, I get to see sides of kids that the world needs to see. I get to hear conversations that the world needs to hear. These are some of the reasons why I write for middle school students—show characters at the same crossroads who make the same choices, try to hold onto their true selves, and attempt to blaze their own trail to turn their world right side up. Also, the books that I write are the books that I wanted and needed in middle school.
Miranda: Your Twitter bio says you hated reading as a kid. When and how did that change?
Torrey: I have a motto that I turned into a banner and since then people around the world have quoted it: “If books don’t love kids, kids won’t love books”. My chances to love books were being shattered by schools because they picked and assigned the wrong books. That’s not just my opinion—that’s what generations of school dropouts before me and after me proved. Also, the state shut down the failing schools I attended. My mom picked up the pieces, personifying that Destiny Child’s lyric: “I'm a survivor. I'm not gon' give up”. She got me back into reading. With smiling eyes, she’d read to me, teaching me what school didn't. Only Tupac's “Keep Ya Head Up” explains the result: “suddenly the ghetto didn’t seem so tough . . . though we had it rough . . . we had enough”. With books, she showed me our block held magic, that I had magic in me, and stories could help me rise. One favorite book was The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. That book plus comics made me make a secret promise that I realize I’m fulfilling: write books that unleash the magic in young people and give them books that love them so they love books.
Miranda: Your books include a lot of superhero references. Who are your favorite superhero characters? How do they inspire you?
Torrey: “What superpower do you wish you had?” I like to ask that question when I do virtual and in-person author-visits and talk at schools. Every kid’s and adult’s hand raises. Most people have an answer: super speed, mind-reading, super strength, flying . . . be like Wanda in WandaVision. Because I juggle teaching and writing, I sometimes wish I had a super speed like the Flash. That way, I could write all the stories I have in my head and heart.
Torrey Maldonado is the author of critically acclaimed middle grade books whose popularity stretches into younger and high school grades. He has contributed to anthologies of diverse, literary all-stars authors and illustrators. Overcoming failing, culturally unresponsive schools plus neighborhood hardships in the Brooklyn projects where he was born and raised, he grew to graduate Vassar College and earn a Masters in Educational Administration from Baruch College. Voted a "Top 10 Latino Author" & best Black Middle Grade & Young Adult novelist, his writing reflects his students’ and his experiences from where has taught for nearly twenty-five years. Learn more at torreymaldonado.com Follow him @torreymaldonado
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